Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 17:00:36 -0500 (CDT) From: Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> To: se@freebsd.org Cc: pnmurphy@home.com, jgreco@ns.sol.net, jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com, ler@lerctr.org, grog@lemis.com, Greg@fatcanary.com.au, stable@freebsd.org, se@freebsd.org Subject: Re: AMD K6-2 / 550 Message-ID: <200007082200.RAA27572@aurora.sol.net> In-Reply-To: <20000708225453.E2104@StefanEsser.FreeBSD.org> from Stefan Esser at "Jul 8, 2000 10:54:53 pm"
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> That is the reason, that the AMD K5 performed so much better under > FreeBSD than the Pentium it was rated against. The K5 had an execution > engine much like that later introduced by Intel in the PentiumPro (i.e. > what every current i586 and up compatible chip except for VIA/Cyrix/IDT > does: pre-process the i86 instructions into RISC instructions for multiple > independent execution units). For that reason, the K5 did not depend on > such specific optimizations as the Pentium to keep its pipeline going. I never really saw that much of a win, but then I never played with the K5 that much. I hit the AMD stuff just as the K6/200 and 233 were coming into the world. > With the (in)famous Appendix H being withheld from the GCC programmers, > the Pentium only reached some 70% to 80% of its nominal performance ... (mutters: "At incorrectly computing floating point...") > If reliability (i.e. 7x24, year after year) is your primary goal, then > choose whatever seems to be well supported and proven. But for a home > system or non-critical workstation, I'd use what provides the best value > for the money. And that has often been an AMD processor in a motherboard > that had been declared obsolete by Intel years ago ;-) Hell, for a critical system, I'll go AMD any day. I just got back to my desk, having just upgraded a system to a K6-III-400... :-) My old ASUS SP3G AMD 486DX5/133 ran for about five years without any problems, which has pretty much become the standard against which I judge other systems. Talk about your basic 7x24 reliability, it had a 500+ day uptime more than once in its life (one was over 700). How many systems can claim that? > (In fact, I know a number of people running a K6-3 in their five year > old Triton based mainboards. They easily beat my non-overclocked 300MHz > Celeron A). Triton? Maybe Triton-II. I'm not sure if they would work in a Triton, since most Triton boards didn't have the regulators. But you can stick one in a T-II board like a Rev. 3.0 or 3.1 ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 with nothing other than one extra jumper. And they pound my other systems, short of something like a BX PIII-550, into the ground. > PS: Anybody seen any indications, that the K6-2+ or K6-3+ may become > available as an upgrade processor ? Its low power consumption > should make it ideal for old mainboards with an linear regulators. I don't know, but I believe AMD is probably going to discontinue the Socket/Super-Socket-7 stuff in the near future. Damn shame, but on the other hand, it's about time. I'm not sure what implications that may have for the plus (mobile) versions. Presumably they run cooler than their non-plus parts... Me, I'm just reaping the benefits of all the advances in hardware. I can now afford to sit here and purchase recycled hardware, like Pentium grade stuff that nobody wants anymore, get it for a song, and turn around and turn it into Real Equipment. -- ... Joe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Greco - Systems Administrator jgreco@ns.sol.net Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI 414/342-4847 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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